South Korea Imposes Official Fine For Puking In Taxi Cabs

This isn't all that widely known among people who have never visited the country, but Koreans are a very hard-drinking people. Well, South Koreans are, North Koreans are lucky just to get dinner. They have been called “the Irish of Asia,” and even corporate culture there dictates that team building should involve booze. It therefore stands to reason that having passengers vomit in their cabs has become a huge problem for cab drivers, especially in Seoul, the capital, and biggest city in the country.

The numbers are fairly staggering, with 10,982 complaints involving vomit (about 42.5 percent of the total) filed last year by cabbies in Seoul alone. So city officials have granted the legal right to cabbies to levy a fine of 150,000 won ($135) on passengers who vomit in their cabs, as well as the right to increase the fine should the passengers refuse to pay. Of course, should they further refuse, there really isn't any means of enforcing it, outside of civil court; but that's essentially true of cab fares anyway. We're just hoping it becomes known as the “puke tax,” as that's what we will call it.